Monday, 22 July 2013

Polishing rocker covers

A short while ago my best mate for about 30 years Stuart, took the engine out of his '71 bay so he could fix a small oil leak and make the finishing touches to the pipework on his home made turbo system. Stuart asked me if I could polish his rocker covers for him while the engine was out, and of course I said I would.

This is how the majority of VW rocker coverslook like. Due to their location they get all sortsof road dirt and grime thrown up at them and of course most are original, therefore they have had at least 40 years of abuse.

Actually Stuarts covers were not that bad. OK they had a small amount of pitting and they had lost their shine many years ago, butthere are worse ones out there.

From this angle you can see the true conditionof the rocker covers.

After a quick clean up with cleaning fluid to remove the general road grime and grease they are starting to look better already.

Next job was to rub them down, I would have normally used the sander but as these were not to bad I used course, medium and fine wet and dry until the minor imperfections had all but gone and they felt nice and smooth. Next job was out with the polishing kit. Starting with the course cutting compound to remove the pitting and any scratches, then moving onto the medium compound to buff them up and then finishing off with the polishing compound to bring out the shine until I was happy with how they looked. This one cover took about 3 hours work.

Well worth 3 hours work, it's almost like new. It is quite satisfying to do this sort of polishingwork.

Nice and smooth and shiny, it's a shame theywill only be seen if someone gets on the handsand knees and looks underneath Stuart's bay.

One down, one to go.

After approximately another 3 hours sanding, cutting and polishing the pair are complete.

The finished items. Stuart was happy with the result, which is all that matters. And I have to say I'm also pleased with how well they polished up.By the way, in case anyone was wonderingwhat the plug is for on the left hand cover,it's for an oil drain pipe for Stuarts turbo.You can see how Stuart built his turbo system from scratch for his 1679cc, '71 bay in his workshop by visiting his blog at:http://chequeredfrontvw.blogspot.co.uk/Checkout the blog archive menu on the right of his page to see all his blog entriesabout his turbo and other work he has carried out of various vehicles.

About My 1969 Microbus.

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